Silke Scheepers
Papers
1
Total Citations
5
H-Index
1
About
Silke Scheepers is a researcher whose work sits at the intersection of clinical psychology, pain science, and anxiety disorders. Her primary research investigates how maladaptive fear and avoidance behaviors—particularly those related to pain—generalize to safe contexts, a process that can transform an adaptive survival response into a disabling condition. In her most-cited paper, "High-Anxious People Generalize Costly Pain-Related Avoidance Behavior More to Novel Safe Contexts Compared to Low-Anxious People" (2023, 5 citations), Scheepers provides compelling experimental evidence that subclinical anxiety serves as a vulnerability marker for chronic pain by amplifying the overgeneralization of pain-related avoidance. This work bridges a critical gap between fear conditioning models and real-world disability, demonstrating that even in the absence of threat, high-anxious individuals continue to avoid movements and situations that are objectively safe. Her findings have direct implications for understanding the transition from acute to chronic pain and for designing more targeted exposure-based interventions. Scheepers’ research is notable for its rigorous experimental design and its translational potential, offering a clear pathway from basic behavioral science to improved clinical outcomes for patients with chronic pain and comorbid anxiety.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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